Thursday, 29 September 2016

Let's Make More Fires

They bought me a little fire pit a few years ago for my birthday... really it was a gift for them as they had this idea of us all sitting around the fire with music playing in the background, the fairy lights lit up and us all laughing and talking as we burn the beejezus out of some marshmallows.

It was a great idea, a very thoughtful gift and we do sometimes do that... sit around and burn marshmallows that is, but nowhere near as frequently as we thought we would or perhaps we should.

There is always an excuse why I often play the role of the wet blanket and say "no" when they ask to light the fire.

In fact I have an attic full of lame excuses I could pull out at any time.

No because it's a school night.

No it's too late.

No we don't have enough wood.

No I have too much to do tonight.

No it's too cold... yeah that one really makes sense right?

None of these are legitimate excuses... not really. They're certainly not reason enough to NOT take the time to light the fire and spend a little time together.

We have this family tradition where at the end of every year we write down all the things we want to leave behind in the year gone.

Bad things that happened, memories that make us sad, any misfortune or pain we felt.

We light a fire and we each take a moment to reflect on those things and let them go and then we throw them into the fire for the universe to take care off. They are no longer our burdens to carry into the new year.

It is such a cathartic exercise to do... whether it actually does anything or not is completely irrelevant because it's all about the way it makes us feel.

Isn't that the point of anything really? How it makes us feel?

We should do more of the things that bring us joy and makes us feel good right?

So why the hell don't we have more fires???!!!

Oh man, I've got it all so very very wrong and a major priority check is in order for me.

From here on in I say "screw school nights, record the Bachelor, pillage the park for firewood, let them argue over the best roasting sticks and let's just light the damn fire."

Life is far too short for a whole lot of "Nos" so let's make more fires!

Do you seize the moment or drop everything to do something special as a family or do you have an attic full of excuses too?